Every teacher I have ever met has had daunting stories of their first years of teaching. Everything is new. There are lesson plans to create, projects to think up, and assignments to grade. On top of that, every teacher needs to discover their own ways of creating a positive classroom environment and rangling students who are distracting the class. All of this is to say that there is a serious learning curve when becoming a teacher.
Now, I don't need to tell you all about the differences that this year held. We all know them. But, at least for me, there were some serious positives and negatives that it brought to my first year as a teacher.
Obviously, starting my year of teaching from my Dad's office in California made me feel incredibly alone in the beginning of my teaching journey. There were not meetings with other teachers in the morning before the students arrived, giving any last sage words of wisdom. There were no shouts of other Kindergarteners trying to find their classes to give me a feeling that my own classroom wasn't the only one erupting into chaos. It was just me, in my dad's chair (to be fair, Nolan was across the hall zooming his class, but the list of similarities we have in our classrooms basically ends at the definition of us each being a teacher). I was trying to learn how to be teacher, while also learning to be an online teacher, while also trying to learn zoom, while the students were also trying to learn zoom. It was a lot.
But, no matter how alone I was in presence, I was not alone in support. Before the start of the school year I was assigned a mentor, Tr. Christine, and I absolutely would not be the teacher I am today without her. In the first few weeks of school, I would send her lists of questions, and she always responded with paragraphs of answers. We would video chat to compare zoom strategies and power points. She shared so many activities with me. Her help and friendship guided me through the entirety of the year, up until the point when we moved to Bangkok, and she left Myanmar, and we were finally able to meet. We now hang out multiple times a week, and it has been so great to talk about teaching and everything else in person.
The other saving grace of my first year of teaching was my amazing local teachers. I was connected with three local teachers to teach with for this school year. I met my co-teacher, Tr. Thin Thin, just a few weeks before the school year started. I was so nervous, and we only briefly talked about the topics at hand, before quickly ending our zoom calls. But, as the weeks went on, our calls were longer, and she really started to feel like a close colleague. As more weeks passed, our meetings would linger long after the topics at hand were discussed. By the end of the year, I can confidently say that she made this year possible, and I consider her a very close friend. Our two assistant teachers, Tr. Stacey and Tr. Ei Po, were equally reassuring and supportive. Our teaching team became a close family by the end of the year. We supported each other through the many tumultuous times of the past year, and they inspire me with their strength, courage, and grace.
My students over this past year kept me more motivated than anything else. When I was bogged down in assessments or lesson planning, I knew that I would always have their smiling faces to look forward to seeing in class. My students were respectful, funny, smart, and caring. They were excited to learn, and they loved being in class. They asked me constantly when I would be able to come see them in Myanmar. More than anything else about teaching, I loved my students.
As the days, then weeks, then quarters passed, I slowly found routine in my teaching life. Lessons were easier to plan, and I learned new games or activities that would make the students excited to be there. I became competent at creating games and online activities using a platform known as Seesaw. I found my own sense of confidence as a teacher, as I watched my students master the topics I presented to them. By the end of an activity, I could tell if it led to real learning or if the students didn't quite grasp it. Through assessments and small group time, I learned which strategies for teaching worked best for some students, and which ones worked better for others. Often times, they taught me as much as I taught them. Whether the topic of the week was Dinosaurs or the Solar System, they always had fun tidbits of facts to share with me. (Or, in one of my lesser moments, a four year old reminded me that the pentagon I had drawn was actually a hexagon.) By the end of the year, as my Kindergartners came to school donned in their graduation gowns, I knew that the students had learned so much, and with it came a strong sense of accomplishment for all of us.
So, all this to say, when I was sitting alone in my dad's office, I wasn't really alone at all. My mentor, my co teachers, and my students were there to support me along every step of the journey. They helped me fall in love with being a teacher. Now as a I begin my second year, I have signed up for a teaching credential program, and I couldn't be more excited to learn even more strategies for helping my little kiddos succeed. But, for now, I am going to stop thinking about school, because it is summer time, and Bangkok is yet to be explored.
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